...faced with the quandary of how to reduce demand for gasoline without raising the price too high.

I was in a quandary.

Farley Mowat -- Never Cry Wolf

The Count was simply in a quandary.

William Goldman -- The Princess Bride

In grieving tones a near-stranger speaks of some beloved person in the past tense, throwing his listener into a quandary.

William Styron -- Sophie’s Choice

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The idea presented a quandary; there were both Christians and Muslims on the team.

Warren St. John -- Outcasts United

In the fullness of time I understood the quandary for the American military.

Marcus Luttrell -- Lone Survivor

Which means Father in Heaven or Father of Fish Bait depending on just how you sing it, and that pretty well summed up my quandary.

Barbara Kingsolver -- The Poisonwood Bible

It was the same old quandary.

Maya Angelou -- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

My quandary increased, as time passed on.

Johann Wyss -- The Swiss Family Robinson

Although this is your time of mourning, a quandary exists that you must resolve.

Christopher Paolini -- Eldest

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It was his mate who relieved him from the quandary in which he found himself.

Jack London -- White Fang

Vittoria often used the process to solve scientific quandaries …. those that most people thought had no solution.

Dan Brown -- Angels & Demons

His hard little face looked flintier than ever and Scarlett was in a quandary.

Margaret Mitchell -- Gone with the Wind

If we cannot cross over to France to-night, Chauvelin is in the same quandary.

Baroness Orczy -- The Scarlet Pimpernel

The question irritated Dick, for it was part of a greater quandary, and he could not, despite the alleged perfection of his over-all design, be certain of the answer.

Truman Capote -- In Cold Blood

Prolix, quartz, quandary, rylpb, rhythm, all the old tricks with consonants I could dream up or remember.

Margaret Atwood -- The Handmaid’s Tale

I can tell you my brother was in a quandary.

T. H. White -- The Once and Future King

Besides, mother is in a quandary, whether to stay with me as mistress of our household, honoring her lord’s bed, and opinion in the town, or take the best Akhaian who comes her way- the one who offers most.

Homer -- The Odyssey

Enemies attacked us by night and put us in a great quandary, but the people of the island say they came off safe and victorious by the might of my arm; and may God give them as much health as there’s truth in what they say.

Miguel de Cervantes -- Don Quixote

You see, having said that if Meg married ’that Brooke’ she shouldn’t have a cent of her money, Aunt March was rather in a quandary when time had appeased her wrath and made her repent her vow.

Louisa May Alcott -- Little Women

It would be more difficult for you, but it would resolve your quandary.

Christopher Paolini -- Brisingr

Here Phoebus, whose imagination was endowed with but mediocre power of creation, began to find himself in a quandary as to a means of extricating himself for his prowess.

Victor Hugo -- The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Sitting in a quandary, he decided, wasn’t helping, so he found his way to the bathroom where, to his amusement, everything he needed for a shower had been carefully laid out for him.

William P. Young -- The Shack

As a matter of fact, she was in a most hopeless quandary.

Theodore Dreiser -- Sister Carrie

This was a quandary but, bringing common sense to bear on it, evidently there was nothing for it but put a good face on the matter and foot it which they accordingly did.

James Joyce -- Ulysses

Thus the quandary vanishes.

Robert M. Pirsig -- Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Once or twice as I stood waiting there for things to accomplish themselves, I could not resist an impulse to laugh at my miserable quandary.

H.G. Wells -- The Island of Dr. Moreau

It’s a quandary, needing a fix.

Ellen Hopkins -- Identical

It put Dish in a deep quandary.

Larry McMurtry -- Lonesome Dove

He was in a quandary: he wanted to point out her mistake, but was afraid he would hurt her.

Milan Kundera -- The Unbearable Lightness of Being

For Howard, they would present some of the most difficult quandaries of his public life.

Laura Hillenbrand -- Seabiscuit

’You’ll be the one man that could help me in my quandaries.

Rudyard Kipling -- Kim

This left us in a quandary.

Betty Mahmoody -- Not Without My Daughter

That old-fashioned revelling in the general situation grows less and less possible as we uncover the defects of natural laws, and see the quandary that man is in by their operation.

Thomas Hardy -- The Return of the Native

He was, for the first time in his life, in a total mental and emotional quandary.

Stephen King -- Cujo

Whenever Madeline fell into a quandary she had to call upon the old cattleman.

Zane Grey -- The Light of Western Stars

The hunter, in turn, was in a quandary.

Jack London -- Sea Wolf

But that was a quandary for another day.

George R.R. Martin -- A Dance With Dragons

I assure you that if you find a way out of your quandary, I shall be extremely pleased.

Albert Camus -- The Plague

He left Duane in a quandary.

Zane Grey -- The Lone Star Ranger

In a quandary Venters returned to the other horses, hoping much, yet doubting more, that when Wrangle had grazed to suit himself he might be caught.

Zane Grey -- Riders of the Purple Sage

Still in a quandary over Royall Tyler, she had had almost no word from him, and while John Quincy’s plans seemed neatly resolved, hers were not.

David McCullough -- John Adams

Washington’s quandary over where the British would strike, and how to apportion the strength he had, was no less extreme now than it had been at the start.

David G. McCullough -- 1776

And sat there in a soggy quandary, knowing I should speak up, knowing I knew something terribly pertinent which nobody else knew or matter would never have gone this far.

Robert A. Heinlein -- The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

Thus, /quandary/, despite a fanciful etymology which would identify it with /wandreth/ (=/evil/), is probably simply a composition form of the French phrase, /qu’en dirai-je?

Henry L. Mencken -- The American Language

Weeks had listened politely, with smiling modesty, till Hayward finished; then he asked one or two insidious questions, so innocent in appearance that Hayward, not seeing into what a quandary they led him, answered blandly; Weeks made a courteous objection, then a correction of fact, after that a quotation from some little known Latin commentator, then a reference to a German authority; and the fact was disclosed that he was a scholar.

W. Somerset Maugham -- Of Human Bondage

Then Ajihad stated, "You are an enigma, Eragon, a quandary that no one knows how to solve.

Christopher Paolini -- Eragon

"Here," says she, "you have brought us into a fine quandary indeed.

Henry Fielding -- Tom Jones

Here’s an example from the first draft of a story that later made its way into The Joy Luck Club, but without this line: "That was my mental quandary in its nascent state.

Amy Tan -- Mother Tongue

Once it was plain that she was gone, Roscoe felt in the worst quandary of his life.